It’s Going To Be A Long Season

By: Chris Paraskevas | July 1st, 2009

First off, some well-directed hatred toward Kostas Katsouranis (replace the ‘a’ with a ‘un’ and you’d get the drift of the general feeling of ill-will of AEK fans toward the traitor) for electing to return to Greece – with Panathinaikos.

OK so we could see it come for quite some time, but it is the sheer reality that he will be wearing green that hurts most after he made his name in black and yellow – quite frankly, how dare he.

Apart from the obvious lure of Champions League – which he no doubt could have found by moving elsewhere in Europe, or by sticking it out with Benfica (who are a far, far bigger club than Panathinaikos in any case) – there seems to be no legitimate football reason for him to return to Greece at this stage of his career. Yes, the Greek domestic scene has made huge strides over the past decade or two and the standard of football is improving but it is no coincidence that younger prospects (Pliatsikas, Tziolis) are being ushered away from Greece for development.

Though Karagounis’ return has worked, one wonders whether a return home will have the same effect for a man who has not seen his best form with the national team for quite some time – but enough about that little upstart, let’s focus on a real team for a few moments…

The side returned to training on Monday morning for the first time ahead of the new season, with new signing Grigorios Makos turning out with his new teammates.

Panionios, Mallorca and Atromitos have all been lined up for August friendlies, whilst Vassilis Pliatsikas has moved to Bundesliga giants Schalke after Greece manager Otto Rehhagel had a quiet word in the ear of new manager Felix Magath.

The usual links with players remain, with Mateja Kezman the most interesting off the lot, mentioned in a supposed swap deal with want-away striker Edinho.

However, given the movements of the likes of Leto and Katsouranis and Olympiakos’ ever-present spending power, AEK’s relative lack of recruiting would suggest they are some way off a legitimate title challenge this season, which with every day is shaping up to be a long one…